


Iowa

by Uturuncu



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Canon Atypical Violence, Canon Compliant, Choose Your Own Level of Shipping, Existential Death, Heartless(Kingdom Hearts), I'm Sorry, M/M, No Such Thing As A Happy Ending, POV Third Person Omniscient, Post-Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, Sharing a Body, Songfic, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, canon character death, locked in syndrome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-05
Updated: 2017-10-05
Packaged: 2019-01-09 07:05:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12271386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Uturuncu/pseuds/Uturuncu
Summary: Songfic - Riku finally snaps and attacks his recurring tormentor of more years than he cares to count. He doesn't anticipate how much of a sheer error this decision is.





	Iowa

**Author's Note:**

> This is a songfic inspired by Iowa, by Slipknot, off of the album Iowa.

 

 

  
_If psychosis had a sound, this would be it._

 

            It had been a mistake... Vibrant, rust-orange eyes stared wide with a manic intensity at the pale, crumpled figure beneath him. Both of them were shaking, but for entirely different reasons. The Heartless quivered with some mix of excitement and anticipation, the look on his face openly eager, lips parted, features twisted beyond what a flesh-and-blood human face could manage.

            But it was far from excitement that left Riku quaking beneath the creature kneeling above him. The way his eyes rolled made it clear he wasn't even a state to form thoughts. It was almost a pity that his vessel wasn't able to realize the depth of his error.

            The islander had finally snapped, finally gotten sick of the ever-present Darkness and the rich voice it came with following him everywhere he went. Every time he thought that Ansem was banished away, there he would come back to torment him again. Finally, after another resurgence of the Seeker, he had cracked and whirled on him with blade drawn.

            Had they been in the physical world, the fight would likely have gone differently, but Riku had delved into the Realm of Darkness to attack his tormentor at the source. That was where everything had gone horribly wrong. It had been a long fight, far more balanced than one would expect with Ansem in the seat of his power. Still, though, the outcome was fated from the beginning. Riku had lost.

            But this time was different. Whenever they had fought before, Ansem had stayed his power to ensure that his little puppet survived. At times, he'd even swallowed pride to retreat, rather than face down the pale boy- no, he was a man now, wasn't he?- with his full power and risk breaking him. Riku hadn't expected the moment the Heartless unbound his power, striking out with previously unseen force, Guardian's fists pummeling into his body even as blades of concentrated Darkness tore through him.

            In one moment it had gone from a balanced fight to Riku crumpled and broken on the ground. Ansem quivered in anticipation... ...Riku was shuddering in pain. It was overwhelming, it felt like every part of his body was broken and he knew that his limbs were sitting at odd, impossible angles. The pain in his chest meant his ribs were broken, and the fact that he couldn't get enough damn _air_ made him realize that one of his lungs had collapsed.

            The moment Riku had fallen to the ground, Ansem had knelt over him, uncaring of the way his legs jostled the islander's broken ones. All that time he'd held back, yet his power had been let go in a surprise attack; and it wasn't just the pale one beneath him that had been surprised. At first, the blast of Darkness and the way his vessel's body had windmilled away from him drew him to pause, even a flash of anger. Who had attacked his vessel?

            It wasn't hard to figure out who, and why, however. Riku had snapped and attacked the Heartless full force, his Heart pulsing with fury, loathing, a desperation to be rid of Ansem once and for all. His turmoil had only fed his omnipresent foe, flooding through him and filling him until the creature overflowed with that negative emotion. And at that moment, he had broken as well, no longer seeing his precious vessel to protect, but a Heart to be torn free from its body and devoured.

            As Riku wheezed beneath him, enough clarity returned. It was obvious to the both of them that the islander was dying; he wouldn't survive these injuries without magical healing. That would, of course, not come from Ansem; could not come from Ansem. A master of Darkness, a being woven of Darkness itself, wielding the Light needed to draw forth healing spells was something he was outright incapable of. Riku himself was able to cast healing spells, but in this state he couldn't focus enough to actually bring it to bear.

            And suffused deep in the Realm of Darkness, there would be no other bearer of Light to happen by and save him. Even with his toy broken, though, Ansem didn't feel a sense of loss. It was like the Keybearer had somehow become even more perfect to him as he watched pale lips begin to turn almost bluish and move as if to speak. The attempt caused the pale man's eyes to clench closed, tears spilling forth and down his cheeks.

            One of the Heartless' gloved thumbs ran across his cheek, then, wiping away the tears and bringing him to jolt in surprise. That was yet another mistake as the jolt ground his broken bones and torn flesh in a way that made him scream... Or more accurately, squeak. There was too much damage and he couldn't get enough air to actually power a scream, not now, not as injured as he was.

            Aqua eyes peeled open as Ansem's cold hand pressed to his cheek in what was almost affection, and he could see near the same expression across dark features. It was wrong, though, just like virtually everything else about the Heartless. Fondness was an emotion of Light, and so the creature of Darkness felt what was a mere facsimile of that, twisted and shriveled into a mockery of the actual emotion.

            Another shiver rippled down Ansem's body as Riku made eye contact with him, that twisted fondness spreading further across his features. He leaned down, then, whispering in the islander's ear in his disturbing, airless manner. "You are my first," was what dripped from his mouth, no breath puffing into the shell of Riku's pale ear.

            The pale man closed his eyes so hard that the lids crinkled, bloodied nose raising up in sneer of pure disgust. He didn't even want to think about the meaning of that phrase, he didn't want to think of everything he had been through at Ansem's hands in all the years he had been stalked and tormented by the inhuman creature. Unbidden, his head shook, though the sudden pain of a deep slice in his neck splitting back open froze him in place once more. This time, he didn't try to scream, though his mouth opened and the back of his throat clicked in protest.

            Why was he still alive?! He shouldn't be! And he wasn't in shock! No, he was keenly aware of every break, every fracture, each cut from shallow to deep laceration. He shouldn't have survived the flurry of attacks that had him shattered and helpless on cold stone. And he shouldn't be conscious through the pain and blood loss. Yet he was. Not only conscious, but with an awful clarity of his surroundings, particularly his dark tormentor.

            Vibrant orange eyes stared down at Riku, eager and hooded with pleasure, lips twinged in an uncanny smile. He'd been looked at like this before, but the manic intensity did not match the usual idle satisfaction that had accompanied it in the past. Something was different about the Heartless, and that was almost more frightening than the pulsing awareness that he was dying. Dying here, far from home, in the depths of Darkness, at the hand of his worst enemy. It was enough to draw a wheezed sob from him, tears renewing in strength.

            The sight brought a renewed shudder from the Seeker, as did the emotions that roiled from Riku now. His body was weak, but his Heart was stronger than ever. It was always such a delight, the way the Hearts of the dying strengthened in an attempt to keep their vessels alive. Really, it was the best part of consuming one.

            He moved down once more, this time to Riku's other ear. Before he spoke, he leaned yet closer, his weight grinding against the islander's injuries even more. That flash of pain had him reveling, his cold tongue slipping out to draw a slow caress around the shell of the pale ear. It swept up a lot of thick blood, unplastering stained silver locks that had been saturated by a deep head injury. The revulsion from the act was reserved entirely for the islander.

            When Riku instinctively jerked away only to cry wispily in pain from how much the movement hurt him, Ansem couldn't help but let out a low, oddly warm laugh. He licked his lips, reveling in the taste of his broken vessel before speaking once again, "You are my favorite." And the choked sob that followed, even despite all it jostled and all the pain it caused, flooded more pleasure into the shuddering Heartless...

            How much he wanted all of this to be over... In his darkest times he had wished for death, had even considered hurrying it along. He'd never acted on it, but now he would do it in an instant. And now he wasn't even able to move or call magic to do it. There were many times before he had been at the Heartless' 'mercy', but never to this extent. There was at least some silver lining, as he felt a lethargy begin to came over him. The pain was dulling. ...He was bleeding out... But at least he would be away from Ansem...

            The Seeker could see the islander's eyes losing focus, and the blueness of his lips becoming more defined and starting to spread. He could feel the strengthening of Riku's Heart, its struggle palpable in a way that he could consume its vigor to empower himself. Of course, he didn't really need the power itself at the moment. Here in the Realm of Darkness he had been quickly able to heal the cuts left by Way to Dawn and the burns from the Light brought against him.

            Glassy aqua eyes closed as Riku readied himself to slip away into oblivion. As he did, his brain rolled through memories and the calm acceptance of his death was suddenly shaken as those memories turned to the one most dear to him. ...Sora... He'd never get to see him again, that stupid, unshakeable smile of his, that pure Light. He hadn't even gotten to say goodbye, he was going to die here by Ansem's hand, and Sora would never know anything more than the fact he had simply disappeared.

            The pangs of pain that flooded through the Keybearer were different, now running through his Heart not his body. In that moment, that feeling of exquisite pain, Ansem knew he couldn't allow his puppet to slip away from him. As that realization hit, his hand lifted up, gloved fingertips reaching up to gently caress Riku's chest. When he found what he sought, a finger was forced roughly into the break of one of the islander's ribs hard enough to be audible.

            It was a very efficient way to snap the pale, flagging man out of his haze of loss, both of blood and those dear to him. The loudest sound yet was torn from Riku's body, a breathy, gurgling cry of agony. His body arched, only sending more bolts of pain as crippled limbs tried to move. When he crumpled back down, panting as best he could and with tears flooding down his face, he was horribly lucid once more. For the first time since the flurry of attacks that left him like this he tried to speak.

            There was so little air behind it and it took so much effort, but he managed a single wheezed, breathy word. "Why?" His eyes rolled a bit from the wave of dizziness that hit him from how much he'd put into that one word. Maybe he should do that again... It had sapped so much of his strength and Ansem could only force him back to lucidity so many times.

            For once, Ansem responded quickly to the question. This time, he didn't roll his answer around in his mind to find the best way to use it as a weapon. He didn't allow a pause to draw out to rile up his vessel. It was just one word, at first, "Love..." he whispered to the silvery man beneath him. That part, at least, didn't actually sound like an answer, but a pet name.

            Riku's blood turned to ice in an instant. The times that Ansem had shared his body, their hearts twinned in a single form, they were connected on a deep, empathetic level. In those times, he had felt something that felt disturbingly close to what he had come to feel for Sora. He had wondered, in the moments when his hopes were most faded, if the Heartless' obsession for him was some shriveled, tattered form of an emotion he was incapable of feeling properly due to the purity of Darkness that comprised his unbound Heart. This was his first actual confirmation of that. And he would have died a great deal more comfortably without the knowledge.

            That icy horror didn't bring the creature to pause, continuing his words even through the realization. "You are mine," he almost _purred_ in that inhuman way he'd always been able to manage. The hand that had ground its finger into Riku's rib shifted, then, to press palm-flat over the man's sternum. "You will _always_ be mine," he continued. At this point his voice had taken on a new quality, a _breathless_ quality. Yet this in a creature that didn't breathe, had no need for air either as sustenance nor to power his voice.

            The islander truly wasn't sure which was more disturbing; the words themselves, the possessive, obsessive mannerisms, or that new vocal quality. He had only heard that once, at the end of his initial possession when Ansem was burned away by Light. And then? It had been because Ansem had an actual, physical form, Riku's form, which did require air. Never once had he heard this from the Heartless when fully unbound. His desire to finally fade away ratcheted up from the anticipation of whatever new horror was to come.

            Ansem's hand did not stay flat over Riku's faltering heart, only reveling in its discordant beats for a matter of moments. His fingers began to curl and as he had done to the pale figure several times before began to dip into his body. They had phased from corporeality into raw Darkness, the way he accessed Hearts to consume them. In the past, it had been a display of power, a threat, a reminder of just how thoroughly he could erase the islander if he so desired. Never before had he any intention to complete the act with _Riku_ , even if he had slain and consumed many others in this manner.

            "I can tear you apart," he continued in that unsettling, breathless manner. Even worse, a quiver had entered his voice that screamed of excitement. As his fingers dipped deeper, they began to curl around the core of Riku's Heart, feeling its dual nature pound in his grip. Light and Darkness in one Heart, balanced but warring all at once. His vessel was such a unique, _perfect_ creature. He leaned forward, shuddering all the harder, "I can recombine you..."

            A different kind of pain was rippling over Riku, now. Those fingers of Darkness within his body were _cold_ in a way that human language did not have words for. As they dug into him they passed through the filaments of his Heart that anchored it to his body, each snapping like a thread pulled too taut. Each snapped string sent pangs of equally indescribable agony throughout him. Even with his body shattered and torn, this damnable creature could find yet more ways to hurt him. Choked whimpers were breaking from him unbidden despite the physical pain they caused, Ansem's words just rising his anxiety and causing adrenaline to flood and keep him horribly conscious and aware of all of this.

            The Heartless clutched the islander's Heart tightly, leaning further forward to press his forehead to the sweaty one beneath him. It was cold, driving further home how close he was to losing Riku forevermore. At that, he started to lift his hand without loosening his grip, beginning to lift it from the man's body, detach it from its natural housing. "All I want... Is to covet you all..." were the next words to break from him, still breathless and yet still not puffing any air onto the other's face.

            Riku wouldn't have noticed even if he had suddenly been breathing, not with his Heart slowly being removed from his body. He went as rigid as he could, back arching up, mouth opening in a silent scream. Laying crumpled on the ground fatally wounded and bleeding out he thought that he had known pain. In this moment he learned just how very, very wrong he was. The hand entering his body had snapped the threads of his Heart that anchored it to him in resounding cracks of agony but that was nothing. Only a few of those had been broken but now every single one was put under tension, attached to the Heart being lifted free of him and trying to follow, trying to do their duty and keep the two things that kept the islander a complete being correctly together.

            With the sensations flooding from the man beneath him both somewhat voluntary from Riku's reactions to the situation to the completely subconscious, instinctive panic from his Heart itself desperately trying to hold the two together Ansem let off a sound that could almost be considered a moan. Each of those threads snapping free of its anchor was another flood of pleasure through him, another desperate struggle from the Heart in his grip to stop this unnatural unbinding.

            He could see it now, the core of Riku's very being clutched in his hand. It was just as perfect as he'd always imagined yet never dared to actually look at. A perfect sphere, it wasn't like others he'd taken. The Light and Darkness within it was almost perfectly in even amounts. Other Hearts he had taken were a core of Light with Darkness flowing over its surface almost like oil on water. Riku, though? Oh his perfect, _perfect_ Riku had combined them into one cohesive orb. The two weren't mingled fully, couldn't mingle fully, but both cored his Heart, a globe of Light but suspended within was a swirling mass of Darkness. In a way that mimicked the way a Heart connected to the body, the Darkness had threads that anchored it to the surface.

            Oh how he'd always known Riku would be so unique, enjoying as more came into view and steadily peeling it further and further out of the islander's body. By this point he'd laser focused in on the orb he pulled free. As the last curve of it slipped free the resistance dissipated and allowed him to draw the Heart up to his face to inspect it close up. He'd sat upright by this point, rolling the oddly weightless thing in his hands. So strange that this beautiful little thing was the core of the man that had consumed his mind for all of these years. He knew, though, he didn't have long to admire it within his hands before it would dissipate.

            It was brought to his lips, then, the warmth of Light and chill of Darkness at one within the Heart brushing against them as he spoke into it. "You belong to me," was whispered against it as he placed an almost tender kiss to its surface. After that he pulled it away from his lips, moving it down and aligning it with his own chest. There was no hesitation as he brought it against his sternum, then began to press it in. "I will kill you... To love you..." dripped slowly from his lips. So focused on the globe within his hands, he was completely oblivious to the fact that in normal, human terms he already had. Damaged as it was, Riku's body had no hope of surviving the extraction of his Heart and had ceased functioning beneath the Heartless.

            The moment Ansem felt the brush of the sphere against his chest, both hands slammed forwards with massive force until his palms were flat against his chest. Riku's Heart was violently forced into a new home in an almost poetic reversal of the two's first true meeting. Where the Heartless usually would rend apart a Heart in his grasp to consume its Darkness, its essence, this was different. Everything had gone completely askew the moment Ansem actually lashed out with the full power he wielded in the Realm of Darkness instead of holding back.

            A deep shudder coursed over him and he leaned forward, clutching at his chest as he felt the new Heart within him bouncing around its new home for a moment. After a short adjustment period it began to unspool filaments like the ones that had connected it to its true body. Each one that anchored caused the Heartless to twitch at the alien sensation. Part of him started to second guess the decision but after a lot of those jolting twitches he began to feel something. Feel _Riku_.

            That was more than enough for him to cease caring about the uncomfortable sensation of the new Heart working to seat itself within him. It was even enough to ignore the way those filaments warred with his own unbound Heart in its facsimile of a body crafted of pure Darkness for anchor points. There was a groggy consciousness starting to rise within him, weak and disoriented. But as usual with Riku, when it came to Ansem the clarity sank in very quickly.

            Even unbalanced and out of place, the islander was in a panic to figure out where he was. The cause of his understanding was likely the most harsh one possible. Like as before when the two shared a body, they saw with the same eyes. And what Riku saw? Was himself. Or more, after a moment's observation, his _corpse_. Cold, still, bloody, and twisted up all wrong the man felt a wave of disorientation and horror that should have drawn a wave of nausea. It never came. He was again a passenger in another's body, though at the same time he realized that this Heartless form likely couldn't even feel nausea if it wanted to.

            With care, Ansem used his Darkness to prune back and then bind some of the searching strands of Riku's Heart. He wanted his plaything to be with him evermore, but he knew how powerful the pale man was and that he needed to exercise some control and observation to ensure that he didn't end up losing his own body to Riku. Gently, one bloodstained glove pressed flat to his chest as he explored the sensations of their Hearts entwining once more and then he slowly purred out one more word.

_"Love...."_

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this fic idea bouncing around my head for well over six months. When I started building my playlist for the pairing, this one stuck out to me and sprouted the first plot bunny. The main reason I didn't write and post this sooner is that I didn't want my first contribution to Ansem/Riku to be a character death fic. But it's hit me much harder than the smut ideas, so it'll be the first higher rated I've done for the pair.
> 
> Riku/Sora is the confirmed pairing in this one. I purposefully left in Ansem's prior torments on Riku blank, so the reader can fill in the blanks on what kind of awful shit that entails. I also tried hard not to let my anatomical fascination or tendency to write very explicitly gory things take hold here, and keep most of Riku's injuries vague.
> 
> Seriously, though. Shit like this is why I can't have nice things.


End file.
